Filestack OCR tasks need a signed policy, and re-run per request

Filestack OCR tasks need a signed policy, and re-run per request

TL;DR

For Filestack OCR tasks, sign a policy with read and convert scopes or you get a 403 naming the task. And do not call the OCR URL on every page view: it re-runs each time, so extract once at upload time and store the result yourself. Context: Official Filestack blog (filestack-processing-tasks): documents two real gotchas.

Use this when you run into the situation in the title.

When not to use this skill: unrelated tasks. It covers only the procedure above.

Compatibility

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Details

First, the OCR and document detection tasks require a signed policy once app security is on. A missing signature returns HTTP 403 naming the task, e.g. 'security required for tasks: ocr', and the policy needs the read and convert calls. Second, the OCR tasks answer Cache-Control: private and run again on every request, so a page that renders extracted text should store the JSON in its own database instead of hitting the transformation URL per view.

Source: Official Filestack blog (filestack-processing-tasks): documents two real gotchas. First, the OCR and document detection tasks require a signed policy once app security is on. A missing signature returns HTTP 403 naming the task, e.g. 'security required for tasks: ocr', and the policy needs the read and convert calls. Second, the OCR tasks answer Cache-Control: private and run again on every request, so a page that renders extracted text should store the JSON in its own database instead of hitting the transformation URL per view.

Verified resolution: For Filestack OCR tasks, sign a policy with read and convert scopes or you get a 403 naming the task. And do not call the OCR URL on every page view: it re-runs each time, so extract once at upload time and store the result yourself.

Source URL: https://blog.filestack.com/filestack-processing-tasks/